IMF report highlights rampant corruption in Pakistan

New Delhi, Nov 28 The IMF, in a recent report, has highlighted the rampant corruption in Pakistan that has crippled the development of the country.

The publication of the report on the website of Pakistan's Finance Ministry, though the subject of recent discussions across the country’s TV shows, instantly became a reminder of complacency across the power structure. Instead of being jolted to take decisive action, a succession of past regimes have treated corruption as a fait accompli, according to an article in Pakistan’s The News International newspaper.

Pakistan is no exception to the powerful reality witnessed worldwide that country after country failed when its leaders chose to ignore corruption. Further damaging to Pakistan’s mainstream population has been the reality of broken-down systems of governance, long ignored when they were of little consequence to the ruling elite.

The article by Islamabad-based journalist Farhan Bokari stated that the heart of the IMF’s report lie two tragic trends.

First, its publication at the behest of a foreign lender rather than a home-grown initiative underlines the lack of sincerity on this front across the power structure. This is nothing short of being outright tragic. Second, the report has highlighted the gaps that have fuelled corruption across Pakistan. But short of the need to overcome those gaps, the report in itself offered little guidance on innovating the road ahead to battle corruption. And the obvious point in need of being addressed squarely relates to the need to reform the structures of governance, leadership and public representation.

Today, Pakistan’s ruling structure is more exposed on its failure to tackle corruption at the grassroots than before. Access to areas that must be the right of every citizen, such as reliance on the police in cases needed, or access to municipal services or access to healthcare and education, have become luxuries for the far too few, the report states.

In the midst of this journey towards elitism, policy directions across the board have primarily become confined around the relatively few. Fancy initiatives such as EV buses or more motorways, or indeed a planned glass-covered train from Rawalpindi to Murree via Islamabad, have become baffling choices, coinciding with increasing nationwide food insecurity. The visibly growing incidence of impoverishment across the country, notwithstanding official claims to the contrary, has pointed to a sorry state within the state of Pakistan, the report further stated.

It opines that going forward, successfully tackling corruption is linked to a massive policy change that is centrally driven by the needs of the people of the country.

Pakistan’s future requires at least three radical choices.

First, fanciful projects undertaken in the name of development must be immediately suspended. In the 1990s, Pakistan witnessed its first-ever Lahore to Islamabad motorway. That was tied to the promise of new motorways leading to robust industrialisation and Pakistan’s economic revival. More than three decades later and following the arrival of other motorways well beyond the Lahore to Islamabad route, the promised economic take-off is still awaited.

The report points out that tackling corruption as an emergency requires a comprehensive review of the patterns of Pakistan’s development spending. In the past, at least one departing senior UN official, prior to leaving Islamabad, claimed in a background briefing that as much as 55 per cent of the funds allocated for development in Pakistan ended up getting lost in wastage and corruption. If true, this pattern is clearly very alarming.

But making a comprehensive change requires an overhaul of the ruling structure in Islamabad and Pakistan’s provinces. Matters such as persuading Pakistan’s lawmakers to robustly back taxes on the incomes of affluent farmers have not been short of an uphill struggle. Even today, the circumstances on the ground present major gaps that continue to raise questions over the applicability of this law. More vitally, making more affluent Pakistanis pay their taxes remains a struggle, the report observes.

Besides, arming each elected politician from the ruling party with generous funds for development in their constituencies, for long has been criticised for enabling corruption at the grassroots, the report added.

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